A recent grad and new adult learning to navigate through life and live it without limits

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IF? IDK

Okay okay, I know I’ve been MIA again (sorry) but I’ve still been taking good care of my health and body! I’ve mentioned before how I realized that I wanted to go into media because I like learning new subjects and teaching them to people who otherwise wouldn’t take the time to do so which is also why I LOVE science. As a young adult working 25/8, I don’t really have access to a science lab to play around in but what I DO have is myself! Yes, that’s right, I am my own guinea pig.

Early March marked the end of awards season and I was supposed to have the last three weeks off and in that time I wanted to try out Intermittent Fasting since I would be away from the office and the temptation to go and get a snack. I only ended up with one week off but ended up accidentally starting Intermittent Fasting on March 5th. It started with me having that day off of work and really sleeping in and since I missed “breakfast” I figured “why not start now?”

For those who don’t know what Intermittent Fasting is, it is eating all of your food and caloric beverages in a smaller time frame, typically over 8 hours in the day verses from when you wake up until your last meal, leaving you with 16 hours fasting. For the two weeks I tried it, I ate from 12-8 or 1-9, it wasn’t always a perfect 8 hours but for me this allowed me to drink coffee in the morning until my first meal and then be able to eat after my evening workout and fill up on mostly carbs before bed to make me sleepy and not go to bed starving.

Why Try Intermittent Fasting: The supposed benefits of incorporating Intermittent Fasting into your life (I say “incorporate” because life happens and your ideal eating hours can’t always be maintained) are to reduce blood sugar and insulin levels, improve your metabolism, protect your body against diseases, repair your cells, and help you lose weight and live longer in the process.

For a more in-depth read, this article broke it down and explained various versions of fasting as well

Going into it, I was nervous that my hunger would take over and I would find myself snacking way too much. The first day was fine since I woke up late and spent my day running errands and going to work that Tuesday-Friday was much easier than expected. I typically make my breakfasts to eat at work anyway, so getting ready without an early meal was easy and if I did get hungry in the morning I would have coffee or tea. For the most part, my hunger wasn’t as crazy as I thought it would be except for a few days in the middle. I also noticed my snacking and cravings go WAY down.

Snacking is the biggest issue for me, even when I don’t feel hungry I find myself looking for the next treat and that is the one major hindrance to really achieving my health and fitness goals. During this two week time period, I saw that craving go down, partially to eating bigger meals closer together, but also because I was focused on doing this right for the full two weeks and as I focused on how I ate, I also paid more attention to what I ate.

Overall, Intermittent Fasting for two weeks was a pretty painless process and much easier to get adjusted to than expected. I did feel great since I could eat all of my carbs in the evening and fall asleep pretty full and I even lost a couple pounds! What I liked the most from this experience though was my mental change towards eating. I realized that I don’t need to eat so much throughout the day and that I don’t actually need all the snacks that my mind says I do. My last day was March 24th, the day after my birthday but before my birthday brunch and day drinking because I figured that I still need to live life without feeling restricted and I should probably eat something the morning before I have a few mojitos.

Intermittent Fasting is definitely something I want to incorporate into my life every so often and I also want to try other forms of fasting for longer periods of time. If you’re interested in trying this out, give it a go and let me know your thoughts!

xo, Lo

P.S. Meal prepping is a great tool during Intermittent Fasting (or all the time honestly) and my Master Your Meal Prep post has a bunch of great tips and tools!

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2 responses to “IF? IDK”

Thanks for sharing your personal experience with IF! My friend recommended it to me a while back but I had the same thought as you did – wouldn’t I get really hungry?? But I never really gave it a shot! I’ll try having coffee/tea in the morning and see how it goes. I love that you had a mental shift towards eating and would love to see if it could work for me too. Thanks for turning all the science-y stuff into a relatable and easily readable post! 🙂